Chernoff's picks Part 2: Western Conference Rankings

Sorry for the delay, it's been a busy week but finally have time to make my Western Conference Pre-Season Rankings. So without further ado, here's how I think the West will play out in the regular season. 

Western 

1. Vancouver Canucks- Despite not showing up in the Stanley Cup Finals, any team with Luongo, Henrik and Daniel Sedin, and Ryan Kesler is sure to be deadly. 

2. San Jose Sharks- Look for Logan Couture to pick up where he left off left season; I see him as a blossoming superstar. 

3. Detroit Red Wings- Every year it's the same story: the Red Wings are always among the best teams in the league. Everything is gonna be fine in the city of hockey town; Goalie Jimmy Howard has 35-40 win potential. 

4. Anaheim Ducks- After Corey Perry's year long scoring binge, I expect Anaheim to surprise a lot of people with the help of Hiller in net and Bobby Ryan dropping jaws with plays like this. Watch that and try not to smile. I dare you. 

5. Los Angeles Kings- After getting Mike Richards, the Kings will get a boost offensively along with the usual production of Kopitar. 

6. Chicago Blackhawks- The team that took the eventual Western conference champions to OT in game 7 of the first round will rebound after having an underachieving regular season last year. Michael Frolik looks to bolster the offensive depth in his first full season with the windy city warriors. 

7. Minnesota Wild- They haven't made the playoffs in a few years, but after making two shrewd trades and acquiring Devin Setoguchi and Dany Heatley, they will be back in the postseason. 

8. Columbus Blue Jackets- Jeff Carter, Derrick Brassard, Rick Nash. Those are the three names that will lead CBJ back to the playoffs. 

For the teams that weren't lucky enough to make the playoffs (hypothetically of course), read about them after the jump. 

Chernoff's Prediction: Pre-Season Eastern Conference Rankings

The Penguins and Flyers will tussle on the ice and jostle for a shot at the Cup.

With about a week and a half left until the season starts, and since Rowe put out his pre-season predictions, I've decided to make a rankings post all my own. Behold, the almighty Shane Chernoff pre-season Eastern Conference rankings. West will come tomorrow, 

Eastern 

1. Philadelphia Flyers- With the addition of Jagr and Bryzgalov, the Flyers will dominate their sport much like their baseball counterparts the Phillies. 

2. Boston Bruins- Boston didn't lose much if anything at all important in the off-season, so look for them to pick up right where they left off. 

3. Washington Capitals- The addition of Tomas Vokoun finally gives Washington a piece to the puzzle they've never before had; despite losing Fleischmann, still plenty of offensive firepower. 

4. Pittsburgh Penguins- Even without Crosby, Pittsburgh managed to make it to the conference semifinals last year. The main question for them is what kind of a player Sid will be when they get him back. 

5. Buffalo Sabres- After absolutely loading up on D, putting the puck past Ryan Miller and the Sabres seems to be a improbable if not impossible task. 

6. New York Rangers- The addition of Brad Richards (however overpaid) finally gives Marian Gaborik a robin to his batman. It will be interesting to watch Derek Stepan to see if he hits the wall after an impressive rookie season. 

7. Tampa Bay Lightning- The team that came within one game of the Stanley Cup Finals will try to engineer another Cinderella run this season. I see no reason to believe they can't. 

8. Florida Panthers- Yes, the perennially awful Panthers will finally end their 11 year drought and return to the playoffs for the first time since the Pavel Bure era. Dale Tallon completely revamped this team and the Panthers shall finally make their fans proud after adding guys like Brian Campbell, Tomas Fleischmann, and drafting hyped-up rookie Jonathan Huberdeau. For more on Huberdeau, check out Steven's post on the former St. John's Sea Dog.

See the teams who didn't make the playoffs after the jump.

Rowe's prediction: Pre-Season Conference rankings

These are my pre-season conference rankings, i'll make another one of these after the trade deadline as well as include my predicted Stanley Cup match-up. For now, these are my rankings:

Eastern Conference:
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1) Washington
2) Philadelphia
3) Buffalo
4) Pittsburgh
5) Boston
6) Tampa Bay
7) NY Rangers
8) Montreal
9) Florida
10) Carolina
11) Toronto
12) Winnipeg
13) NY Islanders
14) Ottawa
15) New Jersey

Western Conference:
----------------------
1) Vancouver
2) San Jose
3) Detroit
4) Los Angeles
5) Chicago
6) Nashville
7) Anaheim
8) Calgary
9) Columbus
10) Minnesota
11) Colorado
12) St. Louis
13) Dallas
14) Edmonton
15) Phoenix

In Shanahan, NHL May have Found a Permanent Disciplinary Solution

When you think of the Red Wings Stanley Cup teams of the late 1990's, a handful of guys come to mind. Obviously Yzerman. Federov comes to mind as well. The third one that I think of is Brendan Shanahan. Always revered as a great teammate wherever he played, Shanahan was a value on and off the ice. Often times he was a mouthpiece for his team, always saying the right things to the press and giving his team a kick in the pants when they needed one. He also had quite a great sense of humor, as displayed in this classic hilarious commercial. Now, since retiring from the game and becoming the NHL's disciplinarian, he has since shown no sense of humor in dealing with a couple of early incidents. While certainly a small sample size, it is a good start and a welcome change from the days of Colin Campbell and the much-maligned "Wheel of Justice". More after the jump.

 Shanahan could prove to be the answer to the NHL's long history of unequal punishments of players (Getty Images)

Social Networks

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Hope you've enjoyed the first couple of posts so far. There will be plenty more to come so stick around, one more post will definitely be up tonight.

Doughty remains unsigned as the season nears

Drew Doughty sure seems to be the hot topic as of late. The former Norris candidate remains unsigned for the upcoming NHL season, and it doesn't seem like the contract talks have been improving too much either. After being draft 2nd overall, behind Stamkos, and being a Norris candidate in just his 2nd year after putting up 59pts with the LA Kings you'd imagine the young 6'1 210+lbs 21 year old would be due for a rather sizable contract extension. All the talks from the media and fans make it seem like he's the bad guy, making it sound like perhaps money is all it's about. He said though it is not about the money and he wish the talks would come off publicly so he doesn't sound like the bad guy anymore. He may say it's not about the money, but that's no doubt a large part of it. It can also be the length of the contract and GM Dean Lombardi is taking this all into account. Lombardi wants to lock up his young superstar to a long-term contract, believed to be for 7+ years. Doughty on the other hand doesn't want to commit that long it seems, and may be looking for something along the lines of 5 years. The proposed yearly salary is assumed to be between 6.5-7.0 mil per year roughly. If Doughty signs the longer deal it may mean more money (annually), and shorter years may mean slightly less money. We're currently in the middle of training camp and the preseason has already commenced. With the new season fast approaching it seems like either Lombardi and/or Doughty will have agree on something, and fast. Would the Kings actually think of trading their young superstar and a key part of their future? Well of course they "can", but that is highly unlikely as Lombardi has already said that he will not trade him. Another GM could always send an offer sheet, he is a RFA after all, but that would be bad for business as well as committing not just a lot of money in one player, but you would also have to sacrifice many top draft picks due to the rules of offer-sheeting a RFA. So that as well seems highly unlikely. At this point its just him and the LA Kings. Is he loyal enough to the Kings that he'll sign a more Lombardi-favored deal? Or will Lombardi be pressured to sign him to whatever he wants if he continues to holdout? I guess we'll just have to wait and see. We should hear more on this subject matter in the coming weeks. The Kings open up their season on October 7th against the NY Rangers in Stockholm, Sweden.

What should the Florida Panthers do with Huberdeau?

With the 3rd overall pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft the Florida Panthers selected the skillful Jonathan Huberdeau (forward). The skilled Left-Winger was invited to the Florida Panthers development camp, as well as the main training camp. In both camps he showed amazing potential and wowed the coaches, staff, and fans. Following those solid looks into game performances during the rookie games against the Lightning (2 games) and the Predators (1 game), playing on the 1st line, being named 1st star after the game 1 victory over the Lightning as hoping to bring those talents into the pre-season. In just his first pre-season game against the Predators he became the 1st star once again, tipping a Gudbranson slap-shot for a goal, and a beautiful assist to Santorelli. He showed poise, amazing vision, hockey IQ, great puck/stick handling abilities, and just having a knack for getting on the scoresheet. even though the young 18 year old Huberdeau only weighs give or take 175lbs he doesn't go down easily. That has been the main issue with him, is the weight. Players like Patrick Kane, who are smaller, show that you don't need to be huge to succeed at the NHL level, it's more the skill, but there is no doubting that more size makes it easier on the player. He has incredible balance, skating ability, and even delivered a solid check during that 1 pre-season game so far. I've even seen him stick up for team mates and i've yet to see him fall once. He can handle the puck through heavy traffic yet still remain control. Can strip it from opposing players as well as having a solid 2-way game where he is effective in his own end as well. So my question is this...what do the Panthers do? If he continues to "wow" during the pre-season should he be given a shot on the main club? Should they send him back to juniors for another year anyways to mature, develop more, gain size and strength, and play for team Canada? Should they at least sign him and give him the "9 game tryout" and go from there? Read more after the Jump.

Welcome to Toe Drag

If you're reading this, you're on Toe Drag, the latest and greatest edition to the hockey blogosphere. I'm Shane Chernoff, and along with my partner Steven Rowe, we'll be bringing you any and all hockey news and our opinions on what's going on around the pucks world! This blog will cover the entire NHL, so if you're a fan of hockey in general, or just want to learn more about the game, you'll want to check this blog out as much as you can. We hope that join us for the ride for this upcoming season, from the time the puck first drops in the regular season in October, to the time that the last team standing gets to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup. If it's in the NHL, it sure as hell will be in Toe Drag, where we're always on the power play.